The idle musings of a former military man, former computer geek, medically retired pastor and now full-time writer. Contents guaranteed to offend the politically correct and anal-retentive from time to time. My approach to life is that it should be taken with a large helping of laughter, and sufficient firepower to keep it tamed!

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

"Prelates and Pederasts"

That's the title of a searing article by Paul Rahe on the clergy child sex abuse crisis within the Catholic Church. Here's an excerpt.

Benedict’s successor was Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina – the man who calls himself Pope Francis. As a Belgian cardinal named Gottfried Daneels – who had been removed as an archbishop because he had covered up pederasty on the part of another Belgian cardinal and had come out in support of contraception, divorce, gay marriage, euthanasia, and abortion – revealed in his memoirs, Bergoglio’s candidacy was promoted by the St. Gallen Group, a part of what Catholics call “the Lavender Mafia.” This disgraced figure stood on the balcony with Bergoglio after he was elected Pope; he was chosen to say the prayer at the new Pope’s inauguration; and there was joy in the ranks of those inclined to break the vow of celibacy.

If you want to get a sense of what such people thought, I suggest that you read “The Vatican’s Secret Life,” an article that appeared in Vanity Fair in December 2013. It is an eye-opener. Its author, Michael Joseph Gross, is not scandalized by what he found. He celebrates it; and, tellingly, he never once mentions, even under the guise of pedophilia, the propensity of prominent priests to indulge in pederasty.

. . .

Since his election, Pope Francis has done everything within his power to soften and subvert the Church’s teaching concerning human sexuality. He put the Lavender Mafia in charge of the two Synods on the Family held in 2014 and 2015. They tried to push through their agenda; and, when the assembled bishops balked, they got a tongue-lashing from the Pope, and he inserted in the final report without comment two paragraphs that had not received the requisite two-thirds vote. All of this – including the machinations of the St. Gallen Group and the role played by Cardinal Daneels – is laid out in detail by an English Catholic, who was in Rome during the early year of this papacy, and who writes under the pseudonym Marcantonio Colonna. The title is The Dictator Pope: The Inside Story of the Francis Papacy.

The Lavender Mafia controls the Papacy and the Vatican overall, and Pope Francis is packing the College of Cardinals, who will elect the next Pope, with sympathizers. Pope Francis and his minions have now been exposed, named, and shamed; and there will be a civil war within the Roman Catholic Church. Either Francis leaves and his supporters and clients are purged. Or the Church is conceded to those who for decades have sheltered and promoted the pederasts and those who regard their abuse of minors as a matter indifferent.

There's much more at the link. Essential reading to understand the current crisis in the Catholic clergy.

All I can say is, if I had known about such goings-on, I would never have become a Catholic priest. Furthermore, having seen only a small proportion of them, and witnessed the utter spinelessness and incompetence (not to mention moral evil) of the response of Catholic bishops to them, I could not remain a priest, as I've written before.

There are many Catholic clergy who argue that one should remain within the "system", to work for its reform from the inside. My response is that it is simply not possible to reform it from inside, and from below. Those in charge are given absolute authority over their areas of responsibility by Church teaching and by Canon Law. Nobody else has any say. Under such circumstances, nothing any subordinate can do will change things. Furthermore, those currently holding the reins of power are the ones who will choose or approve new bishops - and does anyone really think they're going to approve those whose views are inimical to their own?

I fear that the Catholic Church, in its present form, cannot continue for very long. There have been schisms in the history of the Church in the past. I foresee another one, and a major one, because I don't think there's any other practical way to deal with so much institutional corruption.

13 comments:

This will not end until civil authorities investigate, try, and imprison those found guilty. The Church will fight this, of course. But at some point it is necessary for non-Catholic local authorities to do their legally required job. Seems to me we are far past that point.

I have moved away from two Protestant church congregations since it became apparent to me that their main interest was money and power rather than worship and faith. Looks like it is time for a majority of Catholics to do the same. Without the faithful putting money into the coffers the organization won't last long.

There needs to be a new reformation movement within and without the ranks of the clergy, purging the socialists and the lavenderistas, and resetting the focus of the church back onto the mysteries, which have been removed by all the blatant stupidity and political preaching lately exhibited by far too many church elders.

I miss the church of my youth. My mom asks me about my not attending, and I tell her I am more in line with what the church used to be and should stand for than what it is today.

I'm afraid that my education inclined me towards the belief that the Catholic church was born evil. Nothing done in its name since Constantine's reign has reflected a church concerned with the next life. Everything it did and stood for was for power and wealth on this earth and if they had to kill and massacre and wage genocide so be it. Mind you this is written by a man who attended a Catholic school in Newport long long ago.I was never Catholic but I walked away from my church when it went barking mad and won't have anything to do with my parent's church where they went barking mad decades ago. Watching the utter destruction of the Anglican church is almost painful but then they too came into existence solely in order to foil the ambitions of a pope in Rome and had very little purpose beyond that other than to proselytize the faith, get into trouble with the natives and call in the Army to exterminate the natives and then lord it over all that remained.I live now in the vicinity of Cleveland. It is a city rich in religious belief but all that remains of that are the fabulous churches their congregations built for the greater glory of God. The congregations have long since fled and the churches now sit in some of the worst of the decivilized blight that infects so much of modern Cleveland. They're still remarkable.

I and a few friends have retrenched and sought refuge at a Society of St. Pius X parish. No English, no guitars, no novus ordo. It's absolutely wonderful, and they're barely tolerated by the vatican, which is also a bonus.

Without being overly dramatic, a schism would imply dogmatic differences, and beyond perhaps undoing the catechism changes of the last century, I'm not sure a schism is called for. There is certainly a need for a revolution, and with the boss' history of kicking the door open and flipping tables, there's precedent there. Such faithful as there are left would likely be OK with sending some Benedictines into Rome with sharp knives and clean consciences at this point.

I agree wholly with Peter that we can not expect the perverts and power-mongers in red hats to fix the problem. The fiscal needs of the Vatican need to be cut off, and civil authorities need to send the enablers, pimps and perverts to such rewards as they've earned in this world and the next.

The only conceivable way to do so without violence, IMO is mass resignations, admittance of complicity, and sequestration after civil authorities are finished providing mundane justice. Oh, and supressing the thrice God-damned Jesuits again, this time sending them the way of the Templars.

The authour's name is Henry Sire. I disagree with you. Leaving would only signal a victory to the lavender mafias that are spread throughout society.Schism is a temporary solution since Nuchurch would suck up Soros money to further undermine doctrine. No, staying is the best option and reform will happen both from immense prssure from the justice dept/prosecutors and the laity who've had enough.Perhaps I'm too naive but Jesus did promise the gates of hell won't prevail. And God doesn't lie

How many centuries of absolute power has the Roman Catholic church bludgeoned the planet with? I suppose it's progress of a sort that they are destroying themselves from within, instead of sending armies of fanatics worldwide to pillage, rape, and forcibly convert everyone else. Reform is impossible, because no one gives up that much worldly power, especially when it gets the stamp of legitimacy that religion gives it.

Maybe someday, the Vatican will be the same sort of museum and memorial that Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen are. It's certainly caused as much (if not more!) suffering than the Nazis did.

I am of the view that a lot of you really are missing the point (And take from a grain of salt of course) from this "current" crisis. While I've had some pretty bad experiences with my time in a catholic school and the clergy by and large (The masses of the Lutheran churches these days are not better about non judgments..) It's an offshoot of the Lutheran branch those centuries ago, the Catholic Church in general does not care about anyone, lest of all that are inside the walls of it's churches. Speaking in current day contexts it remains aligned with those in power politically and that's about it. I don't think there is going to be a civil war with that sect of Christianity today as those that advocate for it are blind to the very sins it propagates. The at best bastardization of views the current pope seems to spew are not about love, forgiveness but of blasting those that are not of his own view. I think there were a number of wars once fought over such things, today it just illustrates that the Catholic Church is (again?) not about preaching and most importantly showing/illustrating the teachings of the Bible but about retrenching it's power with whatever group of people it can grab on to. Reformation happened and continues to try to happen. As long as the Church does not come clean about it's clergy molesting children and -protecting- those devils they will never be able to have an ounce of credibility. I shudder to think what happens in other countries that may not have media or first world problems with Catholic Priests attending to the poor masses. Mark my words the molestation cases being uncovered in First world nations are the tip of the iceberg.